Threshing Wheat
Thomas Hart Benton
Oil on Canvas
82.1 cm x 150.3 cm
Sheldon Swope Art Museum

external image Benton_Threshing_Wheat.jpg

"Is a tractor bad? Is the power that turns the long furrows wrong? If this tractor were ours, it would be good - not mine, but ours. We could love that tractor then as we have loved this land when it was ours. But this tractor does two things - it turns the land and turns us off the land. There is little difference between this tractor and a tank. The people were driven, intimidated, hurt by both. We must think about this." (Chapter 14 Grapes of Wrath)

Tractor in Modern World -
external image jen.jpg
(Notice the pollution it is creating)

Link to recreation of art:
http://www.globalgallery.com/enlarge/23336/

Connection
Fourth Wall